Drew Lauter, president of media company iHeartMedia Atlanta, was let go after a video surfaced of him appearing to say racial slurs.
WSB-TV, which procured the video, said it shows Lauter using a common slur against Black people multiple times in front of other iHeartMedia employees in a car after a charity event in August 2021. Employees were informed of his departure Thursday.
Attorney Jason Castle, who represents the unnamed Black employee who recorded the video, told WSB-TV that this isn’t the first time Lauter has uttered racially insensitive language.
In a follow-up interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday, Castle said his client isn’t ready to identify himself yet but is weighing a possible lawsuit. Castle’s client joined iHeartMedia as a senior sales executive in 2021 and left in the summer of 2022, seeking counsel with Castle in August. He declined to say why his client departed.
“It was important for our client that the environment that existed at iHeart be communicated and exposed,” Castle said. “What that video depicts was not a singular moment in time.”
Employees had seen Lauter ingest “multiple substances, not entirely of the liquid form,” before the rant began, Castle said, but he wouldn’t say what those substances were.
During part of one of the two videos provided to WSB-TV, it appears Lauter, who is in the back seat, is seen groping the male driver for several seconds.
A spokesperson for iHeartMedia told WSB-TV that “allegations of this nature go against our company values and our policies and we take them very seriously.”
Lauter couldn’t be reached for comment.
Meg Stevens, senior vice president for programming for iHeartMedia Atlanta, confirmed Lauter’s departure from the company but declined further comment. She also acknowledged that Garrett Stolt, vice president for sales at iHeartMeida Atlanta, was let go the same day though it’s unclear why.
Since the WSB-TV story broke on Thursday, Castle said he has fielded numerous calls from other former iHeartMedia Atlanta employees who had their own stories about Lauter, who allegedly bragged that he was good friends with Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia in New York and felt “untouchable.”
Castle said his client offered the video to iHeartMedia months ago but nothing was done until WSB-TV’s story was about to go on air. (He said WSB-TV approached him, not the other way around.)
“We provided every professional courtesy to iHeart to ask them to address the environment there,” Castle said.
Lauter joined iHeartMedia Atlanta in 2020 after a year working at iHeartMedia in Madison, Wisconsin. At the time, he was new to radio, according to Radio Insight, a trade publication. Previously, he worked at multiple start-up tech companies.
iHeartMedia Atlanta owns radio stations 94.9/The Bull (country), Power 96.1 (top 40), 105.3/The Beat (hip hop), El Z105.7 (Spanish pop), 96.7/El Patron (regional Mexican) and news station 640/WBIN-AM.
Its stations have been largely underperforming in recent years compared to its competitors. The two largest stations ― the Bull and Power ― lag behind their direct rivals in the ratings and the Bull’s ratings have fallen sharply over the past two years.
iHeart Atlanta offices and studios recently moved from a building off Peachtree Road, where it was headquartered for decades, to a new space at 1255 Makers Way off Chattahoochee Ave.
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